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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Exploring the Role of Deontic Reasoning and World Knowledge in Wason´s Selection Task

Exploring the Role of Deontic Reasoning and World Knowledge in Wason´s Selection Task

Published on: July 22, 2025

Moral cognition is contractualist, but does not work by simulating a bargaining process.

Jean-Baptiste André¹, Léo Fitouchi², Nicolas Baumard¹

¹Institut Jean Nicod, Département d'études cognitives, Ecole normale supérieure, Université PSL, EHESS, CNRS, Paris, France jeanbaptisteandre@gmail.com nbaumard@gmail.com.

The Behavioral and Brain Sciences

|June 24, 2026

Summary

Moral judgments reflect fair bargaining outcomes, but the brain doesn't need to simulate bargaining. Cognitive systems can achieve fair judgments without complex mental simulations, optimizing decision-making.

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Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation of the Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex to Experimentally Reduce Ideological Threat Responses

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Published on: September 28, 2018

Area of Science:

Cognitive Science
Moral Psychology
Evolutionary Psychology

Background:

Moral judgments often align with outcomes predicted by fair bargaining processes.
Previous theories suggested moral cognition necessitates simulating bargaining.

Purpose of the Study:

To challenge the necessity of simulating bargaining for moral judgments.
To propose an alternative mechanism for achieving contractualist moral judgments.

Main Methods:

Theoretical analysis of cognitive systems and evolutionary principles.
Comparison of simulated bargaining versus exploiting deep regularities.

Main Results:

Moral cognition can produce ideal contractualist judgments without simulating bargaining.
Cognitive systems can exploit underlying regularities without explicit representation.

Conclusions:

Moral judgments are outcome-oriented, reflecting fairness without requiring explicit simulation of bargaining.
Cognitive evolution favors efficient mechanisms that exploit regularities over complex simulations.